Grandiose urban development projects and international mega-events are ideal opportunities for authoritarian leaders to flaunt their power – and provide their associates with lucrative construction contracts.

In Kazakhstan, a local court has ordered compensation to be paid to the ‘victims’ of a poster showing Russian national poet Alexander Pushkin kissing the Kazakh national composer Kurmangazy. на русском языке

In recent months, attention has overwhelmingly been focused on Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. But there is a wider and more disturbing process of militarisation underway throughout the Eurasian region. на русском языке

What’s in a name? President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan was apparently in earnest when he recently suggested changing the name of ‘his’ country. If he gets his way, the domestic and international implications are very real.